I was in my greenhouse the other day, watering some enormous tomato plants. These plants are massive — well over my head and still going strong. They're planted in a raised bed, with about thirty of them shoulder-to-shoulder in close quarters. It’s literally a tomato jungle. They're lush, full, heavy with tomatoes and the pride of any gardener.
Enter my friend, who upon … [Read more...]

I don’t meet many people these days who still think that “things are fine” with the US economy — or that “recovery is right around the corner." The light-bulbs are coming on for people and they're beginning to realize that the current state of affairs is, as David Wann says, The New Normal. The Emperor really has no clothes. We’ve consumed our way past peak resources and the … [Read more...]

Don Henley's empathetic voice in the Eagles song Last Resort warns that if "you call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye." So I'm very careful when choosing words to describe my current location here in Italy.
Sure, it's breathtaking, and the people here love the land. But that's certainly not new. The people I've met have been kind, gracious, and very generous. They love … [Read more...]

As part of our local Transition group's efforts to make local food more widely available in our town, my wife Lindsay has been helping organize a new community garden. The site is a lot that has been vacant as long as anyone can remember.
You can imagine that there was a lot to do before planting: finding the property owner and convincing him to host the garden on his lot; … [Read more...]

I'm a guy who's into the global Transition movement, who worries about peak oil and even thinks that Occupy Wall Street makes some good points. That's why I'm running for public office (see my campaign website). And today is election day.
But don't expect to see anything about my race on MSNBC or even in one of those emails asking you to give five bucks to some candidate in … [Read more...]